1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a scanning endoscope, and more particularly to a scanning endoscope that acquires an image by scanning an object.
2. Description of the Related Art
Various kinds of techniques for reducing a diameter size of an insertion portion to be inserted into a body cavity of a subject to be examined are proposed for endoscopes in medical fields, in order to alleviate a burden on the subject to be examined. As an apparatus which belongs to such techniques, there has been conventionally known a scanning endoscope which does not include a solid-state image pickup device at a portion corresponding to the insertion portion as described above, for example.
Specifically, the above-described scanning endoscope is configured, for example; to cause an actuator, which is mounted to the light-emission-side end portion of an illumination fiber that transmits illumination light emitted from a light source portion, to vibrate. This vibration causes the illumination fiber to oscillate in a predetermined scanning pattern, thereby enabling scanning of an object in a scanning range corresponding to the predetermined scanning pattern. Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2009-212519 discloses a scanning fiber endoscope having a configuration similar to that of the above-described scanning endoscope.